Germany Day II – Munich to Nuremberg

After our first night in Germany we woke up to fresh snow on the ground and more coming down. We luckily had only a 2 block walk to the train station for our 9:55 train to Nuremberg.

We had gotten a late start leaving the hotel, and arrived just a couple of minutes before the train was to depart. Of course, as usually happens when you’re running late, our seats were WAY at the far end of the train.

They were right behind the driver, in a little section of the ICE train that we’ve never seen. There was a glass wall into the ‘cockpit’ and you could see straight out the windshield and watch out ahead.

Our driver making his job look really tough. (I’m sure he was a bit smug because his train actually runs in the snow (unlike the Eurostar).

Steve remarked it was even better than a Swiss panoramic train – as you had a 180 degree view including what was coming. We were assigned these seats by luck. Now that we know we’ll ask for them again, and we highly recommend asking for seat reservations in this front section of the front car if you ever find yourself travelling on a German ICE train. (we observed by watching other ICE trains while waiting for other trains that on some trains this area is second class and on others it is first class, so your mileage may vary)

It was a beautiful ride – the towns, villages and countryside were gorgeous blanketed in snow.

We could have stayed on the train all day, but alas we got off in Nuremberg. This is where we re-joined our original itinerary and checked into our originally booked hotel. We were both tired, and my legs were jelly after all the walking yesterday (reminding me I am 7 months pregnant and need to be taking it a bit slower) so instead of heading straight out we took naps and rested at the hotel.

We headed over to the Christmas Market at 4pm for some snacks and to look at the stalls. It was a very festive atmosphere and really fun to walk around – even if the selection of items to buy was less interesting than I had imagined. An early dinner and an early return to the hotel by 7:30 to read and stay warm.

Tomorrow we plan to do some shopping and Steve will visit the Germanic National Museum (to account for our disparate stamina).